1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an overhead luggage stowage container, particularly for airplanes, including at least one reinforcing structure connected with the container and arranged substantially in the direction of the longitudinal extension of the container, and at least one device for suspension from a supporting structure of the airplane or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Overhead luggage stowages are used, in particular, in airplanes to store passengers' hand luggages during flights. Yet, also overhead stowages for other transport means such as, for instance, rail-bound vehicles and, preferably, high-speed trains as well as buses or ships are covered by the present invention. Overhead stowages in airplanes are subject to extremely high mechanical loads, particularly during the take-off and landing phases as well as during the flight and in emergency cases, for which reason overhead luggage stowages for airplanes will have to be designed to withstand particularly high loads. Those high demands placed on luggage stowage containers drastically increase production expenditures and in most cases also involve increased dead weights.
These days, overhead luggage stowages, particularly for airplanes, in most cases are produced of plastics materials through sandwich construction with cores usually made of honeycomb materials and covered by overlays of plastics materials optionally reinforced with glass or carbon fibers. Overhead luggage stowages can be comprised of bent-around trays manufactured of an above-described material by multi-fold bending or folding. The container can also be produced in an autoclave by the curing of prepreg layers arranged on a mold. The stowage in most cases will further comprise an opening which may advantageously be closed by flaps. EP 0 557 267 B1, for instance, describes such an overhead luggage stowage and a method for its production. Since the substantially vertical side walls of the luggage stowage are subject to high loads caused by vertically directed forces, these side walls and their connection with the bent-around tray of the luggage stowage will have to be produced in a particularly stable and complex manner. This results in an increased weight of the luggage stowage, on the one hand, and in elevated production costs, on the other hand.
Also EP 0 658 644 A2 describes an overhead luggage stowage, which is comprised of structural components having particularly low weights while simultaneously offering high stability.
EP 718 189 A1 discloses an overhead luggage stowage having an increased loading capacity and intended for the retrofitting of existing airplanes, thus being compatible with existing suspension devices for overhead luggage stowages. The overhead luggage stowages according to that document are, however, not specifically designed for the increased static loads exerted by the luggage items contained therein.
In terms of mechanics, overhead luggage stowages, particularly for airplanes, intended for passengers' luggages or the like are usually designed for two situations. One situation comprises the normal, regular flight operation, in which the stowage is to withstand without damage specific loads caused, for instance, by air gusts, particularly during take-off and landing. During take-off and landing or in the event of air gusts, accelerations which may, for instance, be six times as high as the gravitational acceleration will be caused by the inertia of the load contained in the luggage stowage. Such values are common particularly in the tails or noses of planes. The second case of load results from an emergency situation, which may occur, for instance, at an emergency or crash landing of a plane. In order to be able to guarantee the passengers' safety in such a case, the baggage stowages are, as a rule, designed to withstand 1.5 times the normal load, which means, for instance, loads equalling nine times the gravitational acceleration. Those high loads place particularly high manufacturing demands on the baggage stowages and, in particular, on the side walls and their connections with the bent-around tray of the overhead baggage stowage.
Nowadays, an increasing number of increasingly heavy luggage items such as small suitcases, laptops, photographic and video equipments, etc. are taken into airplane cabins as hand luggages. In practice, the permissible overall load of luggage stowages is frequently exceeded. In an emergency case, for example during an emergency landing, the luggage items stored in the stowage may constitute a danger to the passengers. In order to strengthen the bottom plate of an overhead baggage stowage, reinforcing structures comprised, in particular, of bottom plate profiles are mostly provided, which at the same time serve, for instance, for the suspension of means provided above the passenger seat rows, such as air-conditioning, oxygen supply and lighting. The bottom plate of the overhead luggage stowage is thus strengthened by the reinforcing structures, yet the occurring forces are introduced into the side walls of the stowage and, from there, into the suspension devices and, further on, into the supporting structure of the airplane or the like. This may result in the destruction of the side walls and hence in the opening of the overhead luggage stowages, thus causing the luggage items to crash down or the suspension device provided on the supporting structure of the airplane to pull off.
In order to secure the overhead luggage stowages against crashing down, safety devices which are formed, for instance, by flexible force-deflection elements additionally containing a kinetic energy destruction means are known, which will retain the overhead luggage stowage on the supporting structure of the airplane or the like, even after the suspension device has pulled off. Such a securing device is, for instance, described in EP 0 767 100 A1.